Existence
by Looly
Summary: [TophxAang oneshot] How had they come so far only to fail so miserably? Rated T just incase.


**Disclaimer:** If I owned it, you can be sure that Toph and Aang moments would have been _everywhere_ in the episodes. :P

**Existence**

By: Looly

"I am convinced that it is not the fear of death, of our lives ending that haunts our sleep so much as the fear... that as far as the world is concerned, we might as well never have lived." -Harold Kushner

* * *

Everything felt tired. Her feet were tired and her legs were tired and her arms were tired and her brain was tired and her heart and soul and hope were all just so _tired_. They were all relying on her. But she was just so tired. So weak. There was nothing left in her to put into the fight. The others had long since fallen. She tried not to look for them, but she could feel each heartbeat. Hear them. She had listened as many of them slowed down, slowed down, slowed down, stopped. She couldn't take it. 

Things were disappearing. A sense of relief flowed over her; she couldn't stand the ugly silence created by the unmoving bodies. She could let the men hit her. Let them kill her. But she couldn't face the horror of being _alone_. Feeling them fall around her until she was the only one left to drop was too lonely of a thought.

Finally, her knees buckled and everything went black; all she could hear were yells and cries and hate and words flooded her mind. _Disgust, sad, lonely, death, fail, lost, fear, regret, end._

How had they come so far only to fail so miserably?

Only an ounce of power was left, but her body was weak enough that even a small boulder ought to do the trick. She punched her fist into the ground (the thud was so weak, so weak, so _weak_) and shook with sobs as she sensed it hovering over her. To die at the hands of the enemy was to give in; she would end it herself.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to no one. To everyone. To the friends she had failed, to the parents she had left behind, to the enemies she pitied and the boy she loved.

Without hesitation, she let go.

* * *

Was it fair? He felt no regret as he knocked the enemies down and crushed their bones. All he could see were them, his friends, his loved ones, his _family_. Hurting, crying, dying. Etiquette had disappeared from the battle. He froze the very blood running through their veins and stole the very air from their lungs; he buried them in earth and smothered them in fire. 

It wasn't fair. Nobody deserved to die for believing in a world filled with peace. Why was it so difficult to simply live and let live?

"I've got you," he whispered into her ear as he lifted her from the ground. His heart was racing. Tears stung his face. Fear coursed through him; what if he had arrived a moment later? Would she be gone, too?

"I can feel your heart…" she whispered, as though oblivious to everything around them. "I'm so happy… that I can feel your heart."

And she smiled.

"It's all over, isn't it, Aang?"

He nodded.

"And we're all alone, aren't we?"

A choked sob.

"They'll find us, won't they?"

His grip tightened on her sleeve.

"Let's stay together," she whispered. "I don't want to be alone when it's really the end."

In the distance they could hear death. Thousands upon thousands of Firebenders were marching; Aang briefly wondered if the end of their enemies would be any less lonely than their own. One man down was just another man in a uniform following orders. Years from now, who would care about the Airbender and his group of friends who almost brought down the greatest power on the planet? Nobody. All of them would eventually become the radicals who endangered the Fire Nation, to the rebels who caused a bit of a skirmish, to a small group of people who threw rocks and clumps of ice and flaming bits of sticks and even tried to huff-and-puff the Great Kingdom down. Everything would disappear and be written out of existence.

The Airbender and Earthbender huddled together, waiting for the end, surrounded by their friends. The two held each other and spoke not a single word until they fell asleep, lulled by the marching army and the soft sigh of the warm wind that tickled their ears.

* * *

_I hope you all liked it and didn't think I was being too morbid/depressing/et cetera, et cetera. There's really no doubt that in the end the Aang Gaang is bound to succeed, but there's always that_ what if?_ that hides in there, and all of the possibilities of one tiny little thing going wrong and screwing up all that they've worked for. So, that, along with listening to Jimmy Eat World's_ Drugs or Me_, produced this little drabble. :D_


End file.
